The Other Muggleborn
by vagrantboy
Summary: Hermione finds out that the verbal abuse that she receives is not the only thing that happens to muggleborns at Hogwarts.


The Other Muggleborn

_Not attached to the Reintroduction Universe just something I thought of and Terry seemed to be the perfect secondary character._

**Disclaimer: **alright let's say it together……I own nothing that deals with J.K. Rowlings

creations.

Hermione really did not have a clue as to how Neville seemed to have hurt himself opening the portrait door, but it seemed no matter how much he grew in confidence he would still be accident prone.

Now she was escorting him to the hospital wing in hopes that his nose did not drain any more blood from his body.

The entire walk up was quite a nice trip for her though as it took her mind off of everything that had been going on recently with Harry and that stupid book. Not to mention all of the tormenting that Malfoy had been doing as of late.

Unfortunately Neville definitely did not seem to be enjoying the trip as he had to walk up countless steps and cross dozens of hallways with his head leant back, quite the contrary to his usual slouch.

When they had finally reached the hospital wing they had not made it three steps before Madame Pomfrey had made what sounded like a squawk of indignation and ripped Neville away from Hermione. She then hustled about to her office with mutters of "students and their nosebleeds" and "where's that blasted potion" followed by "poor dearies always hurting themselves".

After what had been a total of ten seconds Madame Pomfrey bursted out of her office holding a vial of bubbling liquid.

"This will take care of the bleeding dearie", she said while pouring the vile looking contents down Neville's throat. He gave a sputter and a cough, but managed to choke down the potion.

When ten minutes past the blood had stopped flowing but Neville had developed a bad case of hiccups. Madame Pomfrey simply stated that it was an unfortunate side effect that she couldn't him with.

It was when they were leaving that Hermione noticed that another bed was occupied. And it happened to be taken by fellow sixth year Terry Boot of Ravenclaw. From the looks of him he was in worse condition than Harry had been in…well most of the times Harry had been there. He was sleeping pretty soundly and his handsome face was marred by cuts and bruises as was most of his body it seemed.

"Neville I'm going to ask Madame Pomfrey a few questions I'll see you later in the common room," she said while Neville had stepped out the door.

Neville peered his head in and in-between the hiccups he said, "Okay Hermione I'll talk to you later."

She made sure he had left before she walked into Madame Pomfrey's office.

She knocked on the open door letting the nurse know she was there. When Madame Pomfrey looked up she smiled at Hermione and motioned for the young witch to sit down. It was at this point that Hermione couldn't help herself "what happened to Terry mam?"

The nurse gave her a stern look that seemed to melt when she saw the genuine concern in the young witch's eyes. "Miss Granger I assure you that Mister Boot will be fine, but as to why he is in here I'm afraid I cannot tell you" was what came out of Pomfrey's mouth.

Hermione sensed that it wasn't just some simple quidditch accident as Madame Pomfrey seemed to have no problem voicing her opinion when it came to that subject. So Hermione did what she did best she persevered to further her understanding.

"Madame Pomfrey I know it isn't any of my business, but Terry is hurt beyond almost any normal type of injury that usually finds it's way in here I know being friends with Harry, Ron, and Neville. And I know that whatever happened to Terry had to be something horrible and I am just wondering what could have possibly happened to such a kind person like him that would cause such injuries"(she's laying it on thick at this point even putting on those eyes her boys can't stand) Hermione asked hoping to get some kind of response from the nurse.

After what seemed to be hours Madame Pomfrey looked straight at Hermione with near-tear filled eyes and sighed. "Well you're a hard young lady to say no too." Was all she said before grabbing a tissue to dab her eyes with. Now Hermione felt like a complete cow for making the woman cry. Just as she was about to apologize to beg for forgiveness Madame Pomfrey started to talk.

"I guess in a way what happened to Mister Boot does effect you in a sense. You see Miss Granger what happened to that poor boy was as you have probably guessed no accident. And this is not the first time Mister Boot has been in here like this….though this is the worst it has ever been." It was here she paused and made sure the subject of the conversation was still asleep. "Hermione that young man has been on the receiving end of all the hate, ignorance, and rage that has been in this school since its inception. He has taken beatings because of the blood those courses through his veins just as I am sure you have been on the end of a few cruel words, but this young man has been bruised, cut, spurned, broken in every sense, yet he is still here. It began in your second year nowhere near this level just a black eye and it is now this. Dumbledore does what he can yet the boy never says who has done it…….unfortunately for him he seems to be enough of a target for whoever does this." She finished with her speech with tears rolling down her eyes and she made no move to wipe them.

Hermione herself was crying as it seemed she had not even begun to see the worst of the blood hatred. And as she began to protest Madame Pomfrey to yell that someone should help the ministry, aurors, Dumbledore, the order, or…just someone. There was a groan from outside the office and the nurse was out of the room in a flash. Hermione was not but two steps behind her and if it wouldn't have been for the fact that the nurse decided to pull the curtains closed Hermione would've been able to see Terry waking up.

She heard the muffled noises as Pomfrey shoved potions down the poor boy's throat and then the quick "I'll return later to check on you" as the nurse appeared from inside the curtain.

She took a sharp look at Hermione and whispered, "I'll trust that what I told you shall not have left my office even to Mister Boot as he wants nobody to know of this" and she swept away heading to her office but just before she walked through the doorway she turned and said with a smile "he could do with some company Miss Granger".

With that Hermione didn't think twice before clearing her throat and moving the curtain so she could see Terry.

When she looked at Terry she felt a lump in her throat and felt tears sting her eyes. Because there in front of her was the other hand that shot up in class, the other library inhabitant, the other only person to take notes in Binns class, and the other muggleborn. True they weren't the only muggleborns, but at that point she could've grabbed a hold of him and hugged him for all of eternity. But she couldn't do that because then he would know that she knew. So she swallowed and sucked up everything inside her then smiled.

"Hi Terry looks like you've had a bad day" she said with what she hoped was a normal voice.

"Yeah guess I'll never learn how to play quidditch without hurting myself ha" he said with a smile and a laugh. When he looked at her with his big eyes she saw that same boy that commended Harry on his defeat of the basilisk in second year and praised her for being able to do the Protean charm, but beyond that she saw the pain she dealt with everyday and the need to prove that he was just as able to do everything the "purebloods" could.

It took her a minute to snap out of her thoughts and at that point she noticed that Terry was looking at her with a smile. "Well Hermione Granger does have moments where she's speechless please don't tell me it was my debonair smile or was it my dazzling eyes that made you speechless," he said on the verge of laughing.

Hermione couldn't stop the blush that came along with her embarrassment and she quickly defended herself with "no I wasn't mesmerized by you just wondering if you would like if I let you know what you missed today in class."

At that Terry smiled sheepishly and said, "well Dumbledore had all of my Professors send me notes, but I would like someone to study them with if you have nothing to do right now and if you don't mind" he looked really hopeful when he said this.

At this Hermione's heart broke for this young man who takes on the burden of being the whipping boy of some bigoted students. "I can't think of anything else I'd rather do than study and it would be nice to have a friend to study with" she commented all the while watching to see his reaction.

It seemed the young man had almost reached what her father called "a thousand watt smile" she thought with a great deal of satisfaction. It seemed that she had found someone that she could help even more than Harry, and help she would because with him she could share the burden upfront with him.

_Okay please R&R this one for I like the premise of it. I know this isn't shippy like my other story but I just had to get it out. Thanks for reading. VAGRANTBEN_


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